Read Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord : The Ultimate Foe for Free Online

the neck by Batayn Radaral Buttons with a fifty metre range.
    ‘Yeah, well, whoever slung that thing hadn’t sussed out my underwear, had they?’ He examined the harpoon, gingerly testing the sharp point. ‘So much for illusions!’
    He threw the offensive weapon aside. It clattered on the cobbles. ‘What I don’t get, is why me? I thought it was you he wanted to kill!’
    ‘He’s playing games. Wants to humiliate me.’
    ‘Oh I see, he humiliates you by flinging harpoons at me !
    Makes a lot of sense, don’t it?’
    ‘Of course it does. By using fantasy and illusion, the Valeyard will try to destroy me.’
    ‘Hang on. Take it more slow.’
    ‘You’re not that dimwitted, Glitz. No rapscallion of your calibre could afford to be.’
    ‘Yeah... well. I can see you would be confused. I mean, not knowing what’s what. Real or unreal. But what I don’t get, is where I fit in.’
    ‘Your presence makes his task more difficult. He knows that. He also knows together we can fight him.’
    ‘Fight!’ The suggestion brought about a miraculous recovery. Glitz sprang to his feet. ‘Look, I’m a small-time crook with small-time ambitions – one of which is to stay alive. I wish you very good luck, Doctor, but I’m off. I’ve done my bit.’ He swaggered into the swirling fog.
    ‘The Valeyard must be stopped. And his agreement with the High Council broken.’
    ‘Something best achieved by another Time Lord.’
    Glitz’s proposed departure was suffering somewhat from his inability to decide which way to go. Three paces east. A change of mind. Four paces west. Then south. Refusing to appear nonplussed, he sashayed in and out of the murk with diminishing confidence.
    ‘Something that can only be done by me. And I’m seeking your help, Glitz.’
    ‘Yeah – well – look. This is all mighty embarrassing.’ It most decidedly was! He hadn’t a clue how to leave! The north had proved no more promising!
    ‘If you go – and I die – do you think you’ll have a future? As the only witness to events here, the Valeyard will hunt you down... and kill you.’
    Glitz’s perambulations halted, abruptly. ‘Kill..! Me..?
    You’ve got a mean method of arguing.’
    ‘I’m simply assessing the situation.’
    ‘Hunt me down, you reckon?’
    ‘And finish you off ! Now, hoist up your life preserver and let’s get on with it!’
    Glitz watched the Doctor mount the steps and open the factory door.
    Nothing amiss.
    Still the sceptic, he picked up the harpoon before following at a jog trot...
    The sole splash of colour in the fusty, cramped, Victorian office, was the Doctor’s outfit.
    All else was dark brown or grey. The mahogany desk complete with mahagony stool was reminiscent of Bob Cratchit’s in the classic tale of ‘Scrooge’ by Charles Dickens.
    An inkstand, copious ledger and old fashioned bell-push were dimly lit by a solitary flickering candle. So was the clerk busily scratching away with a quill pen.
    Dressed in Victorian attire, fat, bespectacled and as drab as his surroundings, Mr Popplewick’s assiduous application would have warmed the cockles of the afore-said Ebenezer Scrooge’s heart! He wavered not one jot when the Doctor advanced across the cramped room.
    Nor did he glance up as the outside door opened again and Glitz eased in.
    ‘This isn’t what I expected,’ Glitz whispered.
    ‘The combination is a bit odd.’ The Doctor made little attempt to moderate his tones. ‘Hi-tech vistani alloy walls cocooning what appears to be rather a crusty Victorian clerk. Quite anachronistic.’ He leaned over the desk. ‘How d’you do? I think we’re expected.’
    The rotund Mr Popplewick continued his meticulous copperplate screed.
    Glitz, remaining near the entrance in case he needed to beat a strategic retreat, nudged the Doctor with the harpoon. The sharp end!
    ‘Ouch! Have a care!’
    ‘Sorry.’ He turned it round and nudged with the blunt end. ‘Doc?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Are you sure we’re in